Mom's surgery was deemed a success by her orthopedic surgeon and now she is home in bed. They screwed a plate into her upper humorous (sp?) to keep the ball and shaft attached. She has a lot of soreness and is back on the percocet, but she already has movement in her wrist and elbow and has physical therapy to rebuild the muscles. X-rays of her knee and hip showed no new damage to the bones, so that is a relief. Sinisa and I are back from Los Angeles with the camera gear. We've already made a huge mess and wen't out at 6 this morning to get our first shots: the neo-suburban subdivisions of Tierrasanta. The sun was gorgeous, the sky textured, and the streets wet from the night's rain. Couldn't have asked for better conditions. Everyone's trash cans were out and I thought it added a nice touch. This afternoon the boys arrive and we shoot the Wheelchair sequence. Tonight: burgers on the grill, the jacuzzi, and some evening pool externals. It's great that this is finally underway.

Mom is scheduled for shoulder surgery tomorrow morning. This couldn't come soon enough - she'd been bedridden for a week, in all kinds of pain, and her stomach was beginning to respond poorly to the Percocet and Vicodin. Apparently they won't have to insert a prosthesis - pins and needles will hold the shoulder in place. Mom was very happy with the recovery nurse she spoke with, and was pleased to learn that the hospital's top orthopedic surgeon was performing the surgery. Mom's been lucky in the surgeon department - her unstable condition and considerable medical history always seems to attract quality doctors. I'm staying at home during the five hour procedure, cleaning the house for her arrival and the arrival of the filmmaking crew. Sinisa and I get back from LA with the camera Friday; Joel, Milenko and Renato arrive Saturday. We'll shoot a stylized sci-fi sequence with mom's wheelchair (an homage to the Powerloader sequence from Aliens), the science-fiction introduction in Dad's den, the cutaways and filler shots of the pool and the house externals, and then improvise with mom depending on her health.

Filmmaker's Insurance has generously agreed to give me an affordable 'pickups rate' for re-shoots in March. Panavision, unfortunately, canot promise anything because of the Writer's strike. When I was there, people were working 6 hour shifts and they had just undergone a series of layoffs. It's understandable, the student who isn't paying them a pittance isn't going to rate highly on their list of priorities. In other frustrating news: turns out my parents intend to repaint the entire downstairs between the time of the January shoot and the March shoot, so the amount of material I can shoot - trimmed to 30% of the script after mom fell - is somewhere around 10%. Have to wrap my presents, then spend the day finding creative ways to cheat scenes and get the most of out the spaces I can use. Mom is doing better, though - in less pain and happy to have the family here, though still frustrated with being confined to bed and disheartened by how this turn has hamstrung some of the Holiday rituals. We find out about whether she'll have surgery right after Christmas. This, too, could change shooting plans - she may not even be here for the shoot. Curious if the hospital will let me bring the Panaflex camera and crew into her hospital room...

Got home from the camera prep at Panavision in LA. Had been home less than an hour when mom fell in the kitchen. She'd been on the phone with her doctor and making soup for dinner. She screamed and my dad and I ran in to find her on concrete floor (unfinished kitchen renovation). Her doctor called the paramedics. My mother has the pain threshold of a rabid wolverine - and she was screaming like nothing I'd ever heard. I got her pillows for her arm and arm; held her hand. Things turned surreal - my father was on the phone with my mom's doctor and was running around looking for the phone my mother dropped, because "he heard an echo" in the phone he was on. I was at my mother's side, useless, and occasionally she would reign in the pain and tell me to add the cream to the squash soup, or take the bread out of the oven. I'm serious. Six paramedics  (one of whom was an ex-student of hers) arrived shortly and carted her to the hospital. We followed, and my dad hollered impotently at the Paramedic for not knowing all the shortcuts out of our suburban oasis. We stayed with her through the night - she got morphine immediately, and we waited for x-rays til around eleven. The radiologist was a curt, impolite prick when we came in, but once he saw those first x-rays of my mother's legs, it was like he met Keith Richards. Soon there was a half dozen radiologists in the room, oohing and aahing of the images - they snapped off more than thirty x-rays, the bulk of which were for themselves. My mom is huge in the radiology scene. We got the results around midnight: severely dislocated shoulder (I saw the x-rays: the ball of her shoulder socket had been rammed down into her armpit; and multiple fractures of the upper arm). The orthopedist and his team put her under shortly thereafter and shoved the ball back into its socket. This was apparently a rare and difficult procedure because the ball was in danger of separating from the shaft of the bone. We brought her home, arm in a sling and a bag full of Vicodin, at 3am. She's sleeping now and we're trying to work out the logistics for Christmas. After Christmas, she'll go in and meet another Orthopedist and decide if surgery is the way to go. It sounds like that's how they're leaning: the bone will heal quicker, and her arms need to be strong to support her legs. She is exasperated and sad and all the most frustrated for having gotten that taste of independence. As far as my film: everything changes. I'm scrambling to incorporate this into my script (my third act now looks like my second, and the happy ending took a bit of a hit) and to reschedule what I was going to shoot now for Spring Break.

I'm heading  to San Diego today for the holidays, and to prepare for the Super 16mm shoot (December 28th - January 4th). Sinisa and I prep the Elaine at Panavision on the 20th. I've been alright about staving off The Fear, but I've got it good right now - feels like my lungs are too small for my body.